A major figure in the fiber movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Lenore Tawney redefined the possibilities of weaving and led the way toward the explosive growth of fiber art in subsequent decades. She created a new vocabulary for textile works by subverting the typical woven grid and inventing new ways of weaving beyond the traditional boundaries of the loom. In order to emphasize the sculptural qualities of her works, Tawney maintained that they hang in space rather than against the wall. Born in Lorain, Ohio, in 1907, Tawney moved to Chicago at the age of twenty and supported herself by working as a proofreader for a legal publishing company. After 15 years of living and working in the city, she began taking classes at the Art Institute as well as Chicago’s Institute of Design (formerly the New Bauhaus). At the ID, Tawney studied sculpture with Alexander Archipenko and weaving with Marli Ehrman, an alumna of the innovative weaving workshop at the Bauhaus school of art in Germany. Tawney bought her first loom when she was 41 and devoted herself wholly to weaving at the age of 47.